Manipura/Solar Plexus Chakra/Yellow

Your golden solar plexus chakra is your inner sun. It is the light that shines forth around the center of your being and is your ego, identity, and sense of self in this lifetime. It radiates around that core of you – the hole in the middle that is a direct line to everything and nothing and represents your connection to the universe. That space in the center is not the same thing as your solar plexus chakra, but rather your solar plexus chakra encircles this cosmic umbilical cord to the Divine that is within each of us. Your solar plexus chakra takes what it receives from this center and uses it to motivate and remind you that as much of a part of everything as you are, you are YOU and only you in this form.

If you are at a loss when you try to connect to whatever makes you unique, then you have some work to do. Conversely, if all you do is focus on how unique you are, you have some work to do. As with any energy, the goal with your solar plexus chakra is to find balance.

Try out the statement “I am ___.” With what do you fill in the blank? Whatever your answer, you’re just scratching the surface of how you identify who you are. Ultimately, a spiritual journey involves letting go of as much of that identification as possible because whether your words are kind or cruel, they are limiting.

Balancing our solar plexus chakra is an exercise in remembering the truth of who we are is far more expansive than we’ve become conditioned to believe.

The solar plexus chakra shines out our:

SELF RESPECT/SELF VALUE

IDENTITY/EGO

AUTONOMY

INNER SUN/LIFE FORCE

DESIRE TO BE EFFECTIVE

CONFIDENCE

Think of your belly…that soft, squishy center – at least on the inside – housing your stomach, spleen, pancreas, liver, and intestines. It needs you to nurture it, to feed it the right things emotionally and materially, and to physically exercise the abdominal muscles protecting those parts so that your center can be strong. You have to learn what to absorb, what to excrete, and what to let bounce right off of you – aka, how to take a punch both literally and figuratively.

A spontaneous sharing by Louis C.K. during a Conan O’Brien interview in September 2013 hit the nail on the head regarding a common link we all have to our solar plexus chakras and the holes in the center of us. This clip went viral so you may have seen it, but if not then take 5 minutes and watch it. Notice how his hands go to his belly when he describes the feeling he has “down there” – the “forever empty”, and how he mentions gratitude as a result of getting through an experience with it.

We all have that hole in our centers, that forever empty in our bellies that we cannot fill with any form of distraction be it food, sex, money, technology, exercise, intellectualism, daydreaming, or whatever else we come up with to put in the way of us actually facing it. We’re supposed to have it there, and like C.K., I believe we should be grateful for it. I see it as a tunnel, a portal, a wormhole to the Divine – by which I mean our divine selves.

In the science of physics, current thoughts are that black holes may be part of the process of new star and galaxy creation. If as above, so below/within is as without/macrocosm and microcosm are one, then we should honor the nothingness inside of us because maybe the sheer practice of standing before it sparks the galaxies of our lives. It is our infinite potential, and the initial chakra the energy coming from it encounters is our solar plexus, defining how we think of ourselves as individuals.

I think that helps explain why we each see only from our own perspectives even though we can feel that common bond of a “source”. It’s also why how we see ourselves matters, and why keeping our perspectives of ourselves in balance not just individually and communally, but divinelywill benefit everyone. Live your life seeking balance within yourself and you will also be a part of balancing everything around you in the only way you truly can.

Facing the emptiness in the center helps us to be ourselves in life because we are then also facing truth. And as C.K. said, you have to “stand in the way of it and let it hit you like a truck.” That takes courage because you first face it as “you”, and your sense of ego takes the brunt of the impact. But we often let fearful anticipation of the unknown – of not knowing what will be coming through that tunnel – get in the way and misinterpret what the Divine is trying to tell us.

And when we do hear the messages clearly, we have to continue to keep our solar plexus chakra – our egos – in balance. Life is not about having accolade, or fame, or money. Real rewards in life are personal rather than public even if they’re delivered through a public arena.

The truest reward is your authentic self.

Remember, Oz ended up showing Lion who he already was all along, and he was much more than the fearful version of himself he had been living.

“The knowledge you have saved up cannot compare with the knowledge that sprouts spontaneously out of your being, and it is always appropriate – always on target – because it is not personal.” ~Mooji, 7/7/2013